Romans 8 – We have been taught to fear and hate our bodies. Our bodies that can’t be trusted because they might cause us to sin.

We have been taught not to trust ourselves but those in authority over us. But their bodies cause them to sin, too.

They tell us there is grace, but they are not gracious. But Jesus let his body be broken so we could learn to love ours again. His body…that was killed for us to have life. He had a body like ours. And the Spirit breathed life into our lungs. I know they made us want to die but the Spirit gives us life.

And this makes us children of God.

Children of God who God’s own children have forsaken. Our family sometimes isn’t family. And still, we are God’s children even when we hate each other. Still our Father loves us even when we don’t love one another.

Because we’re supposed to be family…we’re all in this together even when we don’t act like it. And because we are family, we share in the suffering of Jesus. We have the scars to prove it–often from our own Body of Christ. Pain isn’t the problem so much as what causes the pain. Pain can lead to suffering and no one should have to suffer because of the pain someone else has caused.

One day we’ll have bodies that no one hates. Some days it doesn’t seem worth it. We fight evils that destroy life outside ourselves and hate to fight the evil that our siblings in the faith contribute to–longing for the day when we’re free.

Until then no one takes this love from us. We are God’s children even when God’s children disown us.

No one takes this love from us. No one. separates us. from Jesus. We are loved and our bodies are good. And we are family. Even those of us who have been left out, forgotten, cast out.

There is no condemnation here. God is for us. Who can be against us. Amen.